Catching Up With Anticon, Themselves

Anticon’s 2011 release slate is quickening, with several albums on the way, including Son Lux’s We Are Rising on April 26 and 13 & God’s Own Your Ghost on May 17. These releases join early 2011 titles from Beans (the heavy hitting End it All) and Antonionian (Antonionian, the solo debut of Jordan Dalrymple).

The label offers a couple of videos in support of the new releases. The first takes us behind the scenes of the innovative artwork-making process for We Are Rising:

Another video provides a glimpse into the studio for an Own Your Ghost session:

While it’s great to see evidence of the long-awaited 13 & God LP, I’m reminded of a late 2010 release that didn’t get a great deal of attention but deserves some space here: CrownsDown & Company, the third album in a trilogy by Themselves. Themselves is made up of Anticon regulars Doseone (Adam Drucker), Jel (Jeff Logan), and Dax Pierson, who are all also members of 13 & God and Subtle.

CrownsDown & Company, which was released in September, repeats the feat of 2007’s Yell&Ice, a Subtle album that invited multiple collaborators (including Dosh and members of Wolf Parade and TV on the Radio) to re-imagine that group’s well-received For Hero: For Fool. The result was a rare kind of remix record that transcended the original material.

In much the same way, but with an even larger group of guest artists, CrownsDown & Company uses songs from 2009’s CrownsDown as a jumping-off point for adventurous re-workings. Anticon describes the album as the “apt conclusion” of Themselves’ revived activity, “as ten gifted producers help reinvent the…CrownsDown LP.”

Highlights include Alias’ down and dirty remix of “Gangster of Disbelief”, Buck 65’s rock-textured take on “The Mark” and Baths’ luminous interpretation of “Deadcatclear II”:

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Associate Professor of Film and Video Studies at George Mason University.